Jones believes further steps were made during Glovers draw

Mike Simmonds

Hatters boss Nathan Jones felt his side took another step forward despite failing to win at Kenilworth Road once more during a 1-1 draw with Yeovil Town on Tuesday night.

It had looked like Luton would suffer back-to-back home defeats at one stage as Everton loanee Liam Walsh opened the scoring on 70 minutes, only for Alan Sheehan (83) to level with a stunning volley.

“Maybe I’m delusional or have rose-tinted glasses and I’ll watch the game again, but I thought we were excellent.”

Hatters

Town struggled to really test visiting keeper Artur Krysiak until late in the first half, but when asked if he felt the opening period had been a bit of a non-event, Jones said: “I totally disagree. It depends what you want, if you want gung ho and you want swashbuckling stuff, that might not be it, but I felt our approach play, how we took the sting out of the game and passed through their lines was excellent.

“We got into good areas, we just needed to show more quality in the final third as I never felt we were under any pressure.

“I thought we controlled possession, and I’m just disappointed we didn’t win the game. We have to go a little bit gung ho late on, but it’s not always going to be like that.

“We need to learn to control games, take sting out of games, so sides don’t have opportunities to score against us and I felt we did that for large parts of the game.

“This is a Yeovil side in good form, they press you, they work hard, they really put you under pressure.

“I felt we dominated large parts of the game, felt some of our ball play was excellent, the way we moved the ball, way we broke their press, because Yeovil are a good side, they press you and put pressure on you, but I didn’t feel they were able to that because of our quality in possession.

“Maybe I’m delusional or have rose-tinted glasses and I’ll watch the game again, but I thought we were excellent.”

Sheehan’s goal was Luton’s first at home since December 12 and made sure they didn’t set an unwanted record of going four consecutive matches at home without a goal for the first time in their illustrious history.

Hatters have only scored three times in the four games Jones has taken charge of now and he’s aware that stat must improve.

He continued: “We got into the final third with some real fluency, just the final third, our decision making, our quality, we need to be better to win the game and it wasn’t.

“We got into areas, our approach play was fantastic and then when we got into the final third, we didn’t have the quality or that real bit of zest about it in our play to trouble their keeper.

“Second half we had it a lot more, and I’m just disappointed we had to chase the game as we should have been going for that win and that goal should have been good enough to win the game.

“We’ve missed chances, but after all that, I’ve got a tinge of disappointment as we didn’t win the game. I think we showed a lot, showed we’re a side that wants to play, wants to pass, wants to move, wants to move forward and it’s just that little bit more in the final third and we’ll win games.

“I felt we got a performance out of them, I’m pleased with the performance, it’s just little bits. If we can take the goal out of it, I’d be a very, very, very happy manager tonight, as I think we took a step forward and now they’re starting to get a bit of belief in how they play and how they do stuff, so we’re making steps.”

One annoyance for Jones was the way his side conceded once more though, as the Glovers netted after some poor defending from a free kick, with Walsh getting two bites of the cherry to beat Elliot Justham.

He added: “I’m gutted that we gifted them a goal by not defending a set play properly, and that’s cost us the three points.

“They tried to take the sting out of the game which in the away side is their armoury to do, but we restricted them to a 5-10 minute spell of a game of 90 and that’s what I’m talking about.

“We’re controlling games, if we’re going to go forward, we need to control games.

“I thought we did that, we just didn’t have enough quality in the final third to take the three points.”